Washington (AFP) - President Joe Biden will go into his State of the Union address -- typically a chance to address top US domestic questions -- with a burning new focus delivered to him hours earlier Tuesday by Ukraine's president: stop Russia's aggression.
After what the White House said was a more than 30 minute phone call, both sides said they discussed further US help in arming the Ukrainian military resisting the Russian invasion.
And in a post-call tweet, Zelensky, who is sheltering in Kyiv from Russian artillery strikes, summed up his increasingly desperate message: "We must stop the aggressor as soon as possible."
Biden's response to that plea is likely to dominate the annual presidential speech to the joint session of Congress at 9:00 pm (0200 GMT).First Lady Jill Biden has announced that she invited Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova to sit in her VIP box.
Biden, 79, is already facing a mountain of political challenges on the home front.
One year into his presidency, the Democrat's approval ratings are stuck at around 40 percent and Republicans -- many still in thrall to Donald Trump -- are forecast to seize control of the legislature in the November midterm elections.Despite a strong economy, the highest inflation in four decades has badly soured the national mood.
Now, the dangerous crisis in Ukraine risks overwhelming the already burdened White House, yet it could also perhaps offer Biden a way to recast the way Americans see him.
That's why Biden's role in uniting the West against President Vladimir Putin's Russia is likely to loom large during the speech, as well as the political veteran's familiar warning that democracies and autocracies are in a global fight to own the future.
While some Republicans are reflexively blaming Biden for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he is receiving widespread kudos for the determined strategy to shame the Kremlin with warnings weeks ago that an invasion was imminent, even as some European allies and Ukraine's leaders themselves cast doubt.
Now that the invasion has begun, Biden will speak about his efforts to "rally the world" with severe sanctions against Moscow and "the importance of the United States as a leader," Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
Shortly after speaking to Zelensky, Biden pledged on Twitter to counter "Russian aggression."
"We will hold Russia accountable," he said.
Looking for positives
In a new Washington Post-ABC poll, only 37 percent of respondents approve of Biden's presidency, and 55 percent disapprove.An NPR poll found that more than half the country considers Biden's first year a failure.
On the economy -- the issue that tends to decide US elections -- the Post-ABC poll found that 54 percent of Americans think things have got worse under Biden.Only 17 percent see improvement.
The White House insists that on the whole, the economy is roaring out from its Covid pandemic-enforced shutdown.
Job creation and GDP are strong, while inflation, Biden argues, will be temporary, as pandemic-related kinks in the global supply chain are sorted out.
His overriding message will be his "belief in the resilience of the American people and the strength of the American people," according to Psaki.
And Biden does come with two strong cards.
Last Friday he nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first African American woman in history to sit on the Supreme Court.
Biden will also have an opportunity to pivot the country into an optimism-filled post-pandemic future, putting the long national coronavirus nightmare into the rearview mirror.
His speech comes as infections rates are plummeting and just days after the Centers for Disease Control finally eased mask recommendations for most Americans.
Biden recognized during a weekend YouTube interview the "phenomenal negative" impact of Covid on the US psyche.He said that for two years, Americans had faced the most basic, but painful, of questions: "How do you get up in the morning and feel happy?"
At the State of the Union, the nation will be listening to see if he has answers.
